


Off the Beaten Path

by MusicPrincess655



Category: Free!
Genre: Communication, First Kiss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-27 23:15:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17776076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusicPrincess655/pseuds/MusicPrincess655
Summary: Ikuya doesn't know how to read Hiyori, but he'd like to learn.





	Off the Beaten Path

**Author's Note:**

> Hey so I haven't gone here in about 4 years, but I finally watched the new season of Free! and these two gave me an itch I really need to scratch.

_Oh. He’s beautiful._

It’s an almost involuntary thought as Hiyori dives over his head, the relay pass perfect despite their lack of practice. As automatic as an answer to Hiyori’s greetings, as thoughtless as an answer to a question he already knew by heart.

_Oh. He’s beautiful._

Ikuya doesn’t think this is just platonic anymore.

***

They put their fight behind them. Of course they do. It only seemed so world shattering to Ikuya because they’d never had a big fight before. He’d thought he was protecting himself by pushing Hiyori away, and it had only left him lonelier than he could stand.

So they make up, or at least, they move on like nothing ever happened. Almost like nothing’s changed, except everything has.

_You were probably that boy’s hero._

It only makes sense that Hiyori had been in his life for far longer than Ikuya realized.

Ikuya was finally forced to look away from the wounds on his heart that had never quite healed right, and when he had, his eyes had landed on Hiyori. He hasn’t been able to look away since, and he’s noticed things.

Things like how Hiyori’s smile isn’t quite as complete as he used to think it was. Sometimes it looks real. Sometimes Ikuya even believes it is. But sometimes, when Hiyori thinks Ikuya isn’t looking, when Ikuya turns fast enough to catch him, he sees another emotion, one he doesn’t know how to read.

One he’d like to understand.

They return to their status quo, and it should be what Ikuya wants, but it isn’t. He doesn’t know what to do about it, though, because he’s not sure how to break the peace. He doesn’t think he can just say _I think I’m in love with you, a little._

He starts observing Hiyori, trying to pick up on all the things he’s missed, and while he starts to learn that even if Hiyori’s face is a blank smile, his body language can tell a different story, he doesn’t actually find answers to the questions he really wants to ask. Questions he’s not even sure how to ask.

It’s not until he sees Makoto picking Haru up after a joint practice that he realizes he can ask someone other than Hiyori.

***

Haru is still notoriously bad at answering his phone, but it’s not like they never see each other, and when they do, it’s easy enough to pull him aside.

“How did you…?” Ikuya tries to figure out what he’s even trying to ask. “When did you and Makoto get together?”

“At the end of last year,” Haru says. Ikuya stares. He’s never been good at reading people, and Haru has always been a challenge for everyone to read anyway.

“I’m being serious.”

“So am I.”

“You were practically married when I knew you in middle school!” Ikuya protests. Haru just shrugs. “How did you finally get together?”

“I thought I would lose him,” Haru says. “We talked it out.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“Hiyori cares about you too,” Haru says. Ikuya starts. He didn’t think Haru…he didn’t think _anyone_ else had noticed. “It’s easy to see when it’s not you.”

“What if he doesn’t feel the same?” Ikuya asks.

“What if he does?” Haru counters. “What if he leaves?”

That, Ikuya figures, is a good point.

“I don’t remember you talking this much in middle school,” Ikuya says. “I thought the only thing in your head was swimming.”

“It was,” Haru says. “It didn’t work out for me.”

Haru has a boyfriend and a growing potential on the world stage. Ikuya thinks it’s worked out pretty well for him.

“Hey Haru?” Haru waits patiently for Ikuya to gather his words. “Thanks.”

Haru had actually given him pretty solid advice. Now it’s just up to Ikuya to follow through on it.

***

Ikuya and Hiyori are walking after class, and it’s just like nothing has changed. Hiyori babbles away about some café he saw, more to fill the space around them than to make actual conversation.

Just like nothing has changed, but Ikuya wishes something would.

He keeps trying to find a good opening to talk, to say that he doesn’t want to go back to the way they were before their fight, to say that what he feels for Hiyori isn’t what he assumed it was for years. And there’s never a good time, no matter how much Ikuya wishes there would be.

He walks, and he just feels more and more frustrated, until he can’t take it anymore.

“Why aren’t you mad at me?” he finally asks. Hiyori comes to a stop, shocked enough that his gentle smile drops.

“Why would I be mad at you?” Hiyori asks. “I’m never mad at you.”

“Maybe you should be,” Ikuya says. “I started a fight.”

“I pushed too hard,” Hiyori says. “Maybe you could’ve been nicer about it, but you had every right to tell me to back off.”

“Not like that.” Ikuya wants to yell in frustration. “I hurt you, I _pushed_ you. Why aren’t you mad at me?”

“Do you…” Hiyori licks his lips, and Ikuya finds himself unable to look away from the flash of tongue. “Do you want me to be mad at you?”

Ikuya doesn’t want that at all, but he also doesn’t want Hiyori to keep forgiving him at the expense of himself. And now they’re completely off track, and nowhere near what he actually wanted to talk about.

“You…you just…why won’t you ever tell me what’s going on with you?” Ikuya demands. “You just pretend everything is fine, and I can barely tell when it is or not!”

“I am fine!” Hiyori insists. “We’re fine!”

“No, you’re not!” Ikuya argues. “You don’t tell me anything! You pretend the fight was your fault, and you keep your feelings to yourself, and you didn’t even tell me you were the one to save me way back then!”

“You know about that?”

“I guessed,” Ikuya says. “You and my brother were both so weird about it, and it’s the only thing that makes sense. Why wouldn’t you tell me that?”

He throws his hands down, just to let off a little steam, but Hiyori takes a step back, puts his arms up defensively. Like he’s expecting a shove.

And Ikuya refuses to let that stand.

Before he can stop himself, he moves into action, reaching up for Hiyori.

The kiss is terrible. Ikuya terribly misjudges their height difference, and his lips land somewhere below the corner of Hiyori’s. He pulls back just long enough to see the shock on Hiyori’s face, before he has to look somewhere else.

“Why did you do that?” Hiyori asks, high and breathy. Ikuya can’t make eye contact, but Hiyori’s chin isn’t any safer, too close to his lips. He settles for looking at Hiyori’s collarbone instead.

“Because I wanted to.” Ikuya thinks he could just never look above Hiyori’s collarbone ever again.

“You did?” Hiyori asks, voice still unbearably breathless. He reaches down for one of Ikuya’s hands, lacing their fingers together. Ikuya forces himself to look up and meet Hiyori’s eyes. When he does, they’re wide and open, and for once Ikuya can read him perfectly.

Hiyori leans down slowly, and this time, the kiss is much better. It’s just a simple meeting of lips, but it sends a jolt down Ikuya’s spine all the same. When he pulls back, he offers Ikuya a smile. Ikuya’s been observing Hiyori a lot these last few weeks, and he thinks he’s starting to learn how to read those smiles.

This one is real.

Ikuya’s never been good at reading people, but he thinks for Hiyori, he’d like to learn. If it means Hiyori will look at him with those wide open eyes and genuine smile, Ikuya will learn everything he has to.

They start walking again, and Hiyori starts up his babbling again to fill the space around him. It’s almost like nothing’s changed between them.

But everything is different, because they walk side by side, and their fingers are still laced together, hands swinging between them.

Ikuya never wants to let go.

**Author's Note:**

> Hiyori is like. The personification of repression and I really like him. 
> 
> My tumblr: [ musicprincess655 ](http://musicprincess655.tumblr.com/)


End file.
